"Your Heavenly
Father is not afraid of your mess! He wants to wrap you up in His arms and tell
you that He loves you in spite of your mess" - Zane Black (Dare2Share
Speaker). The profound love of our Heavenly Father in the face of our
sinfulness is overwhelming! Have you stopped lately to think about how much you
are loved by God? Consider Romans 5:8 "God demonstrated His love for us
while we were still sinning against Him, Jesus died for us!"
As Zane spoke this
truth, it reverberated across the auditorium with great power. He had just
described the birth of his new baby daughter, his first child. As his wife held
the newly born child for the first time, the baby pooped all over her. The
nurse calmed them down and said they will get her all cleaned up, with the baby
did it again, making a bigger mess. Before the nurse was able to get the baby,
a third movement took place causing mom and new baby to be a filthy mess. The
nurse removed the baby to a crib while they made preparations to clean them up.
Zane, a new dad,
couldn’t figure out what he was supposed to do. Comfort his wife? Or comfort
his new baby girl? All of a sudden his daughter burst out in screaming tears!
He ran over to her and just spoke to her “It’s okay baby, daddy is here and he
loves you!” That instant his daughter stopped crying. He was amazed that she
recognized his voice and was soothed by it. He moved over to check on his wife
and his daughter started crying again. He couldn’t help it this time, compelled
by his love for his daughter, he picked her up, in all her mess, held her close
and said “It’s okay baby, daddy loves you!” She stopped crying, but she was a
mess, daddy was a mess, mommy was a mess.
It was in this moment
that he looked out to the crowd and said “Your Heavenly Father is not afraid of
your mess! He wants to wrap you up in His arms and tell you that He loves you
in spite of your mess!" I was brought to tears imagining my Heavenly
Father reaching down into the stinking mess that I made and drawing me close
and saying, “Son it will be okay, your heavenly Father is here, and He loves
you!”
“See what kind of
love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and
so we are” (1 John 3:1 ESV).
With a tremendous start, the conference
was underway. A powerful weekend that began a journey for all of our teens. One
placed her faith fully in Jesus for the first time, truly surrendering and
going “all in” for Jesus! All of our teens gave me names of their friends who
they want to tell about Jesus! Some even started texting their friend during
the weekend about the Gospel!
I hope you talk to the teens who went,
I hope you listen to their stories. Challenge them to continue sharing. Be
challenged by them and share your faith with someone this week.
It can be as easy as this: “How would
you describe life in 6 words?” See what their response is, identify with the
response. Point them to the Bible by saying “Here is one way to summarize the
Bible in 6 words: God Our Sin Paying Everyone Life. If you would like an explanation
of these words, take 5 minutes and watch this video (www.lifein6words.com).” I dare you to
try it! I just did this simple conversation with a friend of mine. He watched
the video and was moved to tears. I am praying that it will lead to more
conversations and ultimately to him trusting Christ fully!
Are you willing to go “all in” for
Jesus? Will you Dare to Share Christ with someone this week?
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